| GPS | (47.375072479248; 26.62331199646) |
| district | Suceava |
| region | Dolhasca |
| locality | Probota |
| address | |
| category | Religious attractions |
| year | 1530 |
| ethnic | Romanians |
Probota Monastery (formerly Pobrata Monastery) is an orthodox church built in 1530 in the village of Probota (which is today part of the town of Dolhasca) by the prince Petru Rareș. The Monastery church has its patronal day of Saint Nicholas. Probota Monastery played the role of Moldavia princely necropolis (1522-1677), here being buried the prince Petru Rareș (1527-1538, 1541-1546) and Ștefan Rareș (1551-1552), Mrs Elena Rareș and other members of the ruling family of Moldavia. It consists of 6 objectives: • „Sf. Nicolae” Church – dating from 1530; • The prior's house dating from 1530; • The ruins of the princely houses – dating from 1530; • the ruins of the enclosure buildings – dating from the XVI-XVII centuries; • The corner towers – dating from the XVIth century; • The enclosure wall – dating from 1550. In 1993, The United Nation Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) included „Sf. Nicolae” church of the monastery, together with 6 other churches from the North of Moldavia (Arbore, Humor, Moldovița, Pătrăuți, Suceava („St John the New”) and Voroneț), on the list of the World Cultural Heritage, in the Group of the Painted Churches in Northern Moldavia. Probota Monastery is considered to be the founded by the Mușatini family. In the year 1391, under Petru I Mușat (1375 – 1391), the historical sources mentioning the existence of the oak wood Church Saint Nicholas of Poiana Siretului. Later, his nephew Alexander the Good (1400 – 1432) builts a stone church where, in 1465, Stephen the Great buries his mother, Mrs. Oltea. Petru Rareș builds the Probota Monastery between 1528 and 1530, and the interior and the exterior painting is made in 1532. The first prior is Rareș's cousin, Grigorie Roșca, which is also mentioned in the inscription. Petru Rareș is buried at Probota, as Grigore Ureche said: ”Pătru Vodă being old and very sick, they have paid his debt, which was owed to the people and he died on September the 2nd, Friday, in North and they buried him with honor in the Monastery of Pobrată, which was built by him and with a lot of grief and mourning, like after one of his parents”. The museum from the prior`s house possesses treasures from the XV-XVIIth centuries, some discovered after archaeological digging: icons, furniture fragments, woven materials, canonicals, rich liturgical vessels, silver inlaid lamps, filigree lace crosses, old religious books, coins, jewellery, ceramics, decorated tiles. The tall architecture, with its seven counter-forts which seem to launch the church towards the sky, with the octagonal tower”on top”, sign of voivode foundations. The elegance and the perfect proportions of the building, place it among the most beautiful churches of the Romanian Middle Ages. The princely necropolis, located in the church between the narthex and the nave, houses no less than 21 tombs covered with exceptionally beautiful graveyard rocks, with valuable epigraphy. Among them, the one of Petru Rareș, his wives and children, but also the grave stone of Mrs Oltea, the mother of Stephen the Great. In the narthex and church porch, the original painting, dating from Petru Rareș's time, is still being kept. The votive picture is a beauty and an historical monument at the same time, depicting the family of Petru Rareș, who dedicates the church to God.
